Because MySQL replication is simple, mature, and has a rich toolset, it is usually easy to recover from most replication problems. The Percona Toolkit (formerly Maatkit) has two tools that make this fairly painless - pt-table-checksum and pt-table-sync. The former checks for consistency using MySQLs built-in checksumming abilities and the latter repairs found inconsistencies.
Another useful tool is pt-slave-restart which will limp you along and skip replication errors automatically until you can repair the problem.
Another useful tool is pt-slave-restart which will limp you along and skip replication errors automatically until you can repair the problem.